Pierroge
Pierroge is a nation in the continent of Amitrea. It borders Kenkor and Lhonel to the north, Rhen and Hecrivast to the east, and Lorganel to the south. It also borders the Strait of Vicra and the Diamond Bay. The current queen of Pierroge is Elaine VI Travade, and the current head of parliament is Charles Nierre. Anderseille and Ederenne Pierrogic history actually comprises the histories of several distinct states, but because they emphasized a consistent and ongoing regnal numeration, these states are often conflated. The first of these states was Anderseille, an inland city-state that grew to conquer many of its neighbors beginning in the nineteenth century BT. According to most Pierrogic king-lists, Ambrose I came to power in 1846 BT, but the trustworthiness of older dates is commonly doubted. The Anderseille dynasty expanded north and west, into much of modern Pierroge, before collapsing in 1600 BT. The power vacuum was filled by the state of Ederenne, which came to prominence under Georges Edereni. Ederenne was a dominant state for about three centuries, matching Anderseille in land and even expanding south into the Lorgane batret; however, the Edereni are said to have inbred extensively, and many of their later rulers are described as mad. The final Edereni king, Georges III, died in 1291, bringing down the empire with him. Hermanel Many Pierrogic city-states laid claim to the regnal numeration after the fall of Ederenne; however, the claimant recognized by modern king-lists is Adolphe le Crauth of Craugne. As an adolescent, Adolphe seized Craugne in a coup in 1290 and immediately began to expand; by 1284, he crowned himself "Emperor of Hermanel." Hermanel is most renowned for the system of succession it implemented: when a king died, the nobility would vote one of that king's sons into power in a process called the noulagenne. The benefits of the noulagenne were not clear at first; however, they came to the forefront after Raphael V (r. 1100–1069) formally disinherited his sons after a protracted feud. This created an uproar in the court, but when Raphael died, the noulagenne proceeded anyway and elected Raphael's brother Achille. Achille died soon afterward, but nevertheless, the Hermane state survived a changeover in lineage. Even so, the ensuing two centuries of Hermanel were difficult ones; Achille's successor Adolphe VI proved to be widely hated, and the nobles held noulagenne during his lifetime to oust him. Instead, they elected Henry Merande, who— despite being a capable administrator— still struggled with constant rebellions from both branches of the le Crauth family. Later Merande monarchs faced rebellions from the peasants and the Lorganes, and the election of Queen Elaine I in 963 even provoked war with Hecrivast. Elaine died heirless, and so the successor elected for her was Achille Gaillana. Reigning from 940 to 898, Achille— as King Achille V— proved to be one of the greatest Hermane monarchs; he oversaw land expansion, as well as economic and artistic booms. Henry III, a later Gaillana king, was also the first to devise a comprehensive written king-list; the Henrian Scroll is one of the greatest extant sources about the first centuries of Pierrogic history. Despite this golden age, the Hermane monarchs grew complacent by the eighth century, and decline ensued; Hermanel would go on to collapse entirely after Elaine II's reign ended in 684. Birth of Pierroge Elaine Perri is today nicknamed the "Mother of Pierroge"— after taking power in Castilene in 680, she expanded quickly and declared herself the Empress of Pierroge. The early Perri monarchs were very embattled, as the fight to claim the king-list was more hotly contested than ever, but by the close of the seventh century Pierroge stood as its inheritor. Later Perri monarchs swept into the Saltsmoke Desert and claimed large swaths of land; this aroused further conflict with Hecrivast, but Pierroge was nevertheless able to achieve several significant victories. Although it did not employ the noulagenne, Pierroge had been established with a strong enough feudal bureaucracy to withstand governmental turmoil; thus, when Adolphe Corgaud overthrew Thibault I in 488, Pierroge maintained its sovereignty. Gunpowder Wars Pierroge thrived, culturally and economically, in the Corgaud era; by the later Corgaud period, the opinion was widely spread that Pierroge had been "reconstructed" to match Hermanel. However, peace was not to last— Henry VI controversially abdicated in favor of Georges le Cal in 242, citing the collapses of "overlarge dynasties" in Ederenne and Hermanel. The rumor proliferated that Henry and Georges were lovers, and Georges faced ongoing opposition in his reign, even after Henry's death. Georges' son was Thibault II, under whose reign the discovery of firepowder took place. This led to the 199 beginning of the Gunpowder Wars, a series of conflicts that would go on to rage until the Peace of Collinschwef in 57 BT. The Gunpowder Wars consumed both Pierroge and Hecrivast, and eventually the only way they could be reconciled was by the creation of a separate state— Rhen— between the two. Great Saltsmoke Peace After the end of the Gunpowder Wars, Pierroge was near collapse, and Hecrivast was in similarly poor shape; in the ensuing period, both nations turned their focuses severely inward, leading to a period of quiet known as the Great Saltsmoke Peace. Under capable governance, Pierroge was able to recover from the deep economic costs of the war, and was soon functional again; however, the war had also allowed many Pierrogic nobles to make political power grabs, forcing the monarchy to try several times to consolidate its power. In the first century DR, Pierroge became the target of a Dorian invasion; however, then-reigning king Achille VIII was able to marshal a largely cannon-based force and repel the gunpowder-lacking Dorians. This would be the only military conflict Pierroge would be involved in until the complete breakdown of the Great Saltsmoke Peace, a century later; Pierroge and Hecrivast declared the New Saltsmoke War in 129 DR. This war turned out as a Pierrogic victory in 140, leading King Toussaint V to be acclaimed, but it still heralded the collapse of peace. Recent history Not long after the New Saltsmoke War, the Bertolle dynasty collapsed, and Christophe Nacarre seized the throne. The Nacarre dynasty was a highly embattled one, as many of the nobles of Pierroge refused to recognized the Nacarre coup as legitimate, and so there occurred several civil wars in the second and third centuries. After the especially bloody reign of Georges VIII, a group of aristocrats managed to enforce a return of the noulagenne; however, this was not able to quash the lasting bitterness among multiple levels of society. Ultimately, King Fabien XII died with no heirs in 304. The noulagenne council attempted to take total control of Pierroge at that time, but their rule quickly devolved into infighting, and so they appointed Toussaint Travade to the crown. Toussaint still sought to bring about change, and he advocated the adoption of a parliamentary system; however, he was not a hugely effective monarch, and spent much of his time on travels, ostensibly to examine foreign governments. As the ensuing monarchs dragged their feet on the issue of parliament, public outcry gradually grew, ultimately culminating in a peasant revolt in Craugne at the end of the fourth century. This drove Philip III (r. 388–412) to formally implement a parliament in 401, a decision that was widely celebrated. For some time, there was uncertainty as to the role of the parliament; this occasionally manifested in power struggles, but the indolent rule of Ambrose X (r. 435–468) allowed the parliament to assume the primary role in Pierroge's governance. Category:Countries Category:Amitrean Countries Category:Active Countries